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“People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don't find myself saying, "Soften the orange a bit on the right hand corner." I don't try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.” (Carl Rogers)

"As soon as man comes to life, he is at once old enough
to die."

Martin Heidegger was born September 26th, 1889 in the Black
Forest region of Messkirch, and died just 117 kilometres away, in Frieburg
on May 26th, 1976, aged 86.

Turn 1: the meaning of being

Aged 17, Heidegger was Introduced to ‘Phenomenology’ - (from
Greek: phainómenon "that which appears" and lógos "study")
the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness – via
Brentano’s book, "On the Manifold Meaning of Being According to
Aristotle", which had great impact on both Heidegger and Husserl.
Phenomenology attempts to create conditions for the objective study of topics
usually regarded as subjective: eg., being. It is not an attempt at ‘objective’
study, but it seeks through systematic reflection to determine the essential
properties and structures of experience.

Turn 2: Dasein as consciousness of consciousness

Heidegger (was) turned from becoming a Jesuit priest
(theology) to mathematics and philosophy, studying Husserl and completing his
doctorate, "The Doctrine of Judgement in Psychologism". Aged 30, Heidegger
decided to break with "the dogmatic system of Catholicism."

His key philosophical influences were Husserl, the
pre-Socratics, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. Heidegger - qua phenomenologist - became
Husserl’s assistant in 1919, and would later succeed him as professor of
philosophy, at Freiburg. He wrote his most recognized work, Being and Time
(Sein und Zeit) in 1927.

Heidegger’s project in Being and Time is
concerned with what he considers the essential philosophical (and human)
question: What is it, to be? To even ask the question, remarks Heidegger,
implies that at some level the answer is already understood. He describes the
quality of Being in the concept of Dasein. The subject is thrown into a world
that consists of potentially useful things, cultural and natural objects.
Because these objects and artifacts come to humanity from the past and are used
in the present for the sake of future goals,

Heidegger posited a fundamental
relation between the mode of being of objects and of humanity and the structure
of time. The individual is always in danger of being submerged in the world of
objects, everyday routine, and the conventional, shallow behaviour of the
crowd. The feeling of dread (Angst) brings the individual to a confrontation
with death and the ultimate meaninglessness of life, but only in this confrontation
can an authentic sense of Being and of freedom be attained. Dasein is a
consciousness of the thrown quality of being between concepts that form the
reality of the present, and the concern for the safety of the subject into the
future. Dasein in this sense is a consciousness of consciousness. Being comes
into existence at the limit of the thrown-ness of everyday existence between
past and future.

Turn 3: ‘the turn’

Heidegger's later works, beginning by 1930 and largely
established by the early 1940s, seem to reflect a shift of focus, if not indeed
a major change in his philosophical outlook, which is known as "the
turn" (die Kehre). One way this has been understood is as a shift from
"doing" to "dwelling" and from Being and Time to Time and
Being. However, it can be argued that Heidegger did not have a ‘turn’, but rather
pursued and refined the central notion of unconcealment throughout his life as
a philosopher.

In such works as An Introduction to Metaphysics (1953;
trans. 1959), Heidegger turned to the interpretation of particular Western conceptions
of Being. He felt that in contrast to the reverent ancient Greek conception of
Being, modern technological society had fostered an instrumentalizing attitude
that had deprived Being and human existence of meaning, a condition he called
nihilism. Humanity had lost its true vocation; to recover a deeper
understanding of Being that was achieved by the early Greeks and lost by
subsequent philosophers.

Turn 4: Heidegger and Nazism - flawed philosophy or personal
‘error’?

Not strictly considered a philosophical ‘turn’, rather the real-world
relationship of Martin Heidegger to the Nazi Party Germany is troubling and unresolved
– and must be considered in any approach to Heidegger’s work.

Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany on
January 30, 1933. Heidegger was elected rector of the University of Freiburg on
April 21, 1933, and assumed the position the following day. On May 1 he joined
the Nazi Party. He delivered his inaugural address, the Rektoratsrede, on
"Die Selbstbehauptung der Deutschen Universität" ("The
Self-assertion of the German University") on May 27.

His tenure as rector was fraught with difficulties from the
outset. Some National Socialist education officials viewed him as a rival,
while others saw his efforts as comical. Some of Heidegger's fellow National
Socialists also ridiculed his philosophical writings as gibberish. He finally
offered his resignation on April 23, 1934, and it was accepted on April 27.
Heidegger remained a member of both the academic faculty and of the Nazi Party
until the end of the war. Heidegger never publicly apologized for his
involvement with National Socialism. With the de-nazification hearing in 1945, Heidegger was banned from lecturing and teaching at any university by the
French Military Government, and furthermore ruled that the university refuse
Heidegger Emeritus status and pension him off, stripping him of his
professorship. Though he continued to write and speak, he suffered a nervous
breakdown in 1946. He applied for, and was granted, emeritus status, providing
that he would refrain from teaching. By 1950, Heidegger was reinstated to his
teaching position, and, one year later, he was made professor Emeritus by the
Baden government.

The debate remains unresolved. In particular, philosophers disagree
on the consequences of Heidegger's association with Nazism on his philosophy:

Turn 5: Heidegger’s legacy

Being and Time anticipates both hermeneutics (i.e.,
Gadamer) and post-structuralism (i.e., Foucault, Derrida, Levinas). Through his
lectures at Marburg, Heidegger influenced many thinkers, including Herbert
Marcuse, who would become a primary figure in Critical Theory. Heidegger's work
had a crucial influence on the French existentialist Jean Paul Sartre -
although Heidegger published On Humanism in 1947 to distinguish his
phenomenology from French existentialism. Since the 1960s his influence has
spread beyond continental Europe making an enormous impact on Western
philosophy.